Édouard Jean-Baptiste, comte Milhaud (10 July 1766 – 10 December 1833) was a French politician and '' Général de Division''. He is considered one of the best generals of cavalry of Napoleon's army.

French Revolutionary wars

Born in Arpajon-sur-Cère (Cantal) as the son of Louis Amilhaud and Marguerite Daudé, Milhaud was commissioned as an officer in 1789. During the French Revolution, Milhaud was elected to the National Convention (which aimed at giving France a new political constitution) and in the of Louis XVI he voted for the death of the king. He defended

Jean-Paul Marat Jean-Paul Marat (; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the ''sans-culottes'', a radical ...

against the attacks of the

Girondins The Girondins ( , ), or Girondists, were members of a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnard ...

. In 1793 he was sent as a commissary to the armies of the Rhine and the Ardennes where he distinguished himself in his severity and his zeal in applying revolutionary ideological principles. Sent to the army of the Pyrenees, he was successful in aiding Dugommier in restoring order. He was recalled the next year and made a member of the military committee. After the fall of Robespierre, Milhaud was threatened with arrest but saved from this fate by his colleagues on the military committee. His political role effectively over, he was recalled to the army and he became commandant of the 5th dragoons and was sent to the Army of Italy. Milhaud distinguished himself at Brenta and in the battle of Bassano. The following year he was again accused because of his role during the Terror but the Council of Elders decided not to act on the accusation. Milhaud took an active part in the conspiracy leading up to

18 brumaire The Coup d'état of 18 Brumaire brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France. In the view of most historians, it ended the French Revolution and led to the Coronation of Napoleon as Emperor. This bloodless ''coup d'état'' overt ...

which was the day of the ''coup d'état'' by which General

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

overthrew the

French Directory The Directory (also called Directorate, ) was the governing five-member committee in the French First Republic from 2 November 1795 until 9 November 1799, when it was overthrown by Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte in the Coup of 18 Brumaire and r ...

. Promoted to general de brigade in January 1800 he was employed in the army of England and was made commander of the 8th military division in the Vaucluse.

Napoleonic Wars

During the War of the Third Coalition Milhaud served under Joachim Murat in the 1805 campaign leading up to the Battle of Austerlitz, in which he also took part. On the outbreak of the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806, Milhaud distinguished himself at the

Battle of Jena A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

against the Prussian army. On 28 October 1806, he forced 6,000 Prussian troops of the corps of Prince Hohenlohe to capitulate. At the end of 1806 he was promoted to general of division and in 1807 he distinguished himself at the Battle of Eylau against the Russians. His performance brought him to the attention of

, and having already been awarded the Légion d'honneur, on 10 March he was made a

Count of the Empire As Emperor of the French, Napoleon I created titles of nobility to institute a stable elite in the First French Empire, after the instability resulting from the French Revolution. Like many others, both before and since, Napoleon found that th ...

. From 1808 until 1811, he fought in the Peninsular War. In November 1809, near Dos Barrios, one of his brigades of Dragoons was forced to retreat after a skirmish with Spanish horse under General

Freire Freire / Freyre is a word used in the Portuguese and Galician languages to define the occupational name for a friar or a nickname for a pious person or someone employed at a monastery. The word is derived from Latin ''frater'', which means brothe ...

Oman, Charles Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman, (12 January 1860 – 23 June 1946) was a British military historian. His reconstructions of medieval battles from the fragmentary and distorted accounts left by chroniclers were pioneering. Occasionally his ...

(1908)
''A History of the Peninsular War'', Vol. III, pp. 86, 90-91.
''Project Gutenberg''. Retrieved 20 February 2023. That month, there was nothing directly between Aréizaga's vanguard at La Guardia, in Toledo, and Madrid, except for the Polish division of the IV Corps at Aranjuez, and Milhaud's five regiments of Dragoons at Ocaña. And on 18 November, the cavalry of Milhaud and Paris, made up of eight regiments, numbering almost 3,000 men, riding at the head of the French army, crossed the Tagus river at Aranjuez and met Freire's four divisions of horsemen, over 4,000 sabres, moving at the head of Areizaga's column. According to Oman (1908), "the collision of Milhaud and Freire brought about the largest cavalry fight which took place during the whole Peninsular War". In July 1811, as part of Marshal Soult's Army of the South, Milhaud served at the head of 1,595 Dragoons in General Sebastiani's IV Corps.

(1911)
''A History of the Peninsular War'', Vol. IV, p. 638.
''Project Gutenberg''. Retrieved 20 February 2023. In November 1811 he was put on disability but in June 1812 he was recalled to active service and made commandant of the 25th military division. During the invasion of Russia, he became for a short time the military commandant of Moscow. In 1813 he commanded a cavalry corps at the

Battle of Leipzig The Battle of Leipzig (french: Bataille de Leipsick; german: Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig, ); sv, Slaget vid Leipzig), also known as the Battle of the Nations (french: Bataille des Nations; russian: Битва народов, translit=Bitva ...

. He fought, October 10, 1813, in the plain of Zeitz, one of the best fights of cavalry mentioned in French military annals, and in which he completely destroyed regiments of Austrian ''Latour'' and ''Hohenzollern'' Dragoons, as well as the ''Kaiser'' Chevau-légers. Based on his experience with these commands in 1814 Milhaud became Inspector General of the cavalry. During the first Restoration he was given command of the 15th military division by Louis XVIII. During Napoleon's

Hundred Days The Hundred Days (french: les Cent-Jours ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition, marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration ...

, he immediately supported Napoleon, and in the Waterloo campaign he commanded the IV Cavalry Corps. At the Battle of Ligny on 16 June 1815 with his cuirassier divisions he broke the centre of the Prussian army and helped to win Napoleon's last victory. Two days later at the Battle of Waterloo 18 June his divisions took part in the great general cavalry assault on the allied centre, a plan he had opposed but had to execute. The attacks ultimately proved a failure. After the second restoration Milhaud was banished by King Louis XVIII as a regicide. After the July Revolution in 1830, he was called back to France, but died on 10 December 1833 in

Aurillac Aurillac (; oc, Orlhac ) is the prefecture of the Cantal department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Aurillacois'' or ''Aurillacoises''. Geography Aurillac is at above sea leve ...

References

Bibliography

* Niemann, August (Hrsg.): ''Militär-Handlexikon''. Adolf Bonz & Comp., Stuttgart, 1881.

French Revolutionary wars

Napoleonic Wars

References

Bibliography

Further reading